The Invention of Ethnicity in the United States and Race, Nation, Culture in Recent Immigration Studies

Invention of Ethnicity in the United States discusses how ethnicity has become an important understanding in studying the process of immigrant adaptation. The authors argue that ethnicity is an “invention” because it is constantly adapting to the changing realities within the culture and in society outside of it. This ethnicity they are looking at is from those immigrants who claim to be ethnic Americans and resist the claim of being a foreigner. These ethnic groups contain people of the same ideas and values who create an identity together, similar to an interest group. The essay claims that ethnic groups maintain this “dual purpose” in keeping their collective identity when adapting to American culture itself. The authors go on to show how ethnic groups have played a role in American society over time from a positive and negative aspect.

Race, Nation, Culture in Recent Immigration Studies

Race, Nation, and Culture in Recent Immigration Studies by George J. Sanchez discusses modern issues of labor exploitation of illegal immigrants in order to provide a better understanding of race and immigration. Sanchez begins talking about different cases where illegal immigrants such as Latinos and Asians were working in unfair conditions in sweatshops. These illegal sweatshops lead to many immigrants being found as an illegal citizen and along with other immigrants they had their “American identity” taken away. Sweatshops terrible working conditions shows how mistreated immigrants were and the challenges they faced in the workplace. Sanchez further examines the racialization of Asian and Latino immigrants in American Society. However, these cases he first discusses show that race and immigration are tied together even though many claim it to be separate. America was created based on immigration and is full of diverse cultures, races, and ethnicities. We tend to focus on European immigrants and not all, which is why Sanchez focuses on Asian and Latino immigrants. Furthermore, his focus is how both race and immigration must be looked at as a unity and not separately.